**AUTHOR POST** Leigh Russell

    Killer Plan (DI Geraldine Steel, #7)Murder Ring (DI Geraldine Steel, #8) Deadly Alibi (DI Geraldine Steel, #9)

I'm am delighted to welcome Leigh Russell to my blog today with a guest post about location. 

Leigh will be appearing at the Bibliomaniac's Book Club event on the 18th January 2017 so keep your eyes peeled for more posts about this and with reviews of the evening. For more information about Bibliomaniac's Book Club, click on the link below:
Welcome to Bibliomaniac's Book Club

Leigh is a prolific crime writer with well over a dozen titles to her name. She writes the internationally bestselling crime series featuring police detectives Geraldine Steel and Ian Peterson, which are currently in production for television. She also writes the mystery series featuring investigative reporter Lucy Hall.

Her most recent title "Deadly Alibi" is available on ebook already and the paperback is due out on the 25th May with No Exit Press. 

So without any more false starts up the garden path, let's get back to Leigh and here more about her writing process and the locations for her crime novels! Thanks so much Leigh for popping along today!

LOCATION 

So many elements combine to make a successful crime novel that it's difficult to pick out just one to write about!

            In my writing I started out by focusing on plot and character, at the same time considering social issues such as the problems following a character who ought not to be living in the community unsupervised, or some of the social issues surrounding gun crime.

            Location didn't play a significant role in my early books. In fact my detective, Geraldine Steel, begins her career working in a fictitious town in my debut novel, Cut Short. Although several scenes take place in a place loosely based on my own local park, much of the setting is made up.

            As I grew in confidence, I felt I ought to offer my readers more authentic locations. The description of a realistic setting can add another layer of interest to a narrative, if convincingly written. So in the fourth book in my first series, Geraldine moves to London, which is my home turf. From that point on, most of the scenes in my books are set in real places.

            The spin off series for Geraldine's sergeant, Ian Peterson, is set in York right from the start. My descriptions of the places are brief but detailed, attempting to convey the atmosphere of the city as well as its physical features.  
 
            Unlike Geraldine Steel and Ian Peterson, my latest protagonist isn't a police officer. The Lucy Hall series has given me licence not only to create a "savvy Nancy Drew of the modern era" (Trip Fiction), but the freedom to set my books anywhere in the world. The first in the series, Journey to Death, sees Lucy in the Seychelles. From there she moves to Paris and then Rome.

            At the moment I'm back in the UK writing the tenth Geraldine Steel book as the ninth, Deadly Alibi, has just been published. With two more Geraldine Steel books in the pipeline, and more planned after that, it looks as though I'll be busy describing different locations for quite a while!


Thanks so much Leigh! And I wonder, does planning for the Lucy Hall series involve thorough research on location? That sounds like it could be fun - and possibly affect the next location?!! Great to hear there are so many more books to come from you!

For my review of some of Leigh's books please click on the links below:
Deadly Alibi Review
Murder Ring: Review and Interview
Blood Axe Review



Here's a little bit more about Leigh Russell:

"From the moment I learned to read, writers drew me into their imaginary worlds. Never Never Land, Narnia, Wonderland, Treasure Island, Middle Earth, they were all so much more exciting than the world around me. 'One last chapter, just one more,' I'd beg every night when my parents told me to go to sleep. 'I can't stop now.'
Hooked on reading, I studied literature at university, and spent four years immersed in books. After that, I had a number of different jobs before becoming a teacher, a career that enabled me to share my enthusiasm for books with teenagers. Once again, I was spending most of my working week reading and discussing books. 

Despite reading so many books, for many years it never crossed my mind to attempt to write one myself. So you might wonder how I became a published author. F Scott FitzGerald's words describe my experience very neatly. "You don't write because you want to say something. You write because you have something to say." There I was, happily reading other people's books, with no plans to write my own, when the idea for a story popped into my mind. That moment changed my life.

Intrigued by a fictitious killer who had arrived, unbidden, to lurk in my imagination, I began to write his story. Having started, I could not stop. That story, Cut Short, was shortlisted for a CWA Dagger Award, and went on to become the first in a long running series. 

I now have three series to my name. My original detective inspector, Geraldine Steel, features in an ongoing series. Her sergeant, Ian Peterson, has his own spin off series as a detective inspector. Both of these series are in development for television and have been translated throughout Europe. My third series is a new departure for me as Lucy Hall does not work for the police, although she also investigates murders.

In the seven years that have passed since Cut Short was published, I've rarely managed to go a day without writing. What surprises me now, is that I didn't discover my passion for writing sooner. It's late, so I'm off to type one last chapter before I go to sleep... just one more... I can't stop now... "

If you would like to find out more about Leigh you can follow her on Twitter @LeighRussell or via her website http://www.leighrussell.co.uk/index.php

To find out more about Bibliomaniac's Book Club, or read more of my reviews and recommendations you can follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacuk)

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